Category: Travels
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Weta Cave & Te Papa
I knew we would find the artist studios in Wellington that helped Peter Jackson create the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies. Weta Cave, named after that ugly cricket indigenous to New Zealand, is home to the prosthetic and digital monsters, superheroes, and awe-inspiring creations that populate many popular and obscure films and…
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Hell’s Gate in Rotorua
Although I am back home in Waynesboro, I did have a few more photos to share. After a full day visiting Hobbiton in Middle Earth, we went to soak in the mud pools of Hell’s Gate. Yes, that’s what it’s called. The most popular hot springs in the north island is reportedly the Hell’s Gate…
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Return to Aotearoa
It’s been 4 years since I traveled to New Zealand. And since I was spending time visiting Fr. Kerry in Australia, I figured it was time to return to the Land of the Long White Cloud. Besides, there were lots of other Lord of the Rings movie locations to visit. It was definitely a prime…
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London, then Home
On Saturday we boarded a train at the GWR Station Cardiff for our last leg of this journey–London. We discovered that lunch is not served all day long, as it is back home. They do actually cut you off at 2:30PM until the dinner hour, likely 5PM. I must say it’s an admirable attempt to…
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Raglan Castle
On our last full day in Wales, I just knew we had to get in one last castle before heading out to London. So we set out for Raglan Castle, a trip that would take a 15 minute train ride to Newport, a 7 minute hike to the bus station downtown, a 40 minute bus ride to…
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Caerphilly Castle
We got off the train at the fourth stop, a little town north of Cardiff called Caerphilly. It has a castle with a moat. A MOAT! This I had to see. As we approached it from the north, its massive outer walls came into view. This is a castle in the middle of a modern city.…
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Cardiff City Tour
As with all the other major cities we visited, there was a Hop-on Hop-off City Bus Tour service in Cardiff. Having no vehicle of our own, it is also a great introduction to a new place. We get a brief history (complete with puns, jibes, and general cheekiness), a quick review of important places and…
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Cardiff City Centre & Cardiff Castle
We flew out of Glasgow Airport and landed in Cardiff. I had asked Fr. Kerry if there was a way we could hire a car and drive back to Edinburgh for the International Fringe Festival that started that same night. He said it was do-able, but that it would also take 6 hours. And we…
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Glasgow & Bothwell Castle
We arrived in Glasgow Sunday afternoon. There wasn’t time to do much. Besides, it was raining on and off. The hotel we were staying at was on the Clyde River and after dinner, we walked across the bridge and back. I just had to make 10,000 steps on my Fitbit. The next day, we walked…
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